Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of video projection.
2. Related Art
It is known to project video signals onto flat screens and walls. It is also known to project video signals onto broad, curved screens, such as the IMAX theater system.
It is not known to project continuous video images onto adjacent walls or flat screens joined at corners. Home, office and theater projection is currently limited to single contiguous surfaces, because images cannot be projected onto adjacent walls or onto walls and ceilings without distortion. There is a need for coordinated projection of video or digitized film simultaneously onto multiple surfaces joined at corners.
Digital manipulation of video and still images is known. Adjusting distortion caused by the angle of projection is known currently in the form of keystone correction. Such image adjustment allows images to be projected from a projection angle other than normal to a flat surface and still appear to a viewer to be undistorted and in their proper perspective. Still image digital manipulation of perspective is also known, in the form of skewing and distorting.
It is not known to project images onto two adjacent walls simultaneously and correct the perspective so that the images appear to a viewer to be undistorted and in their proper perspective, despite the corner dividing the image.
There is a need in the art for projection adaptable to various room configurations with digital perspective correction applied through wide angle optics.
The present invention combines wide angle optics with digital distortion control technology in a novel manner useful for projecting continuous images onto multiple surfaces such as adjacent walls and ceilings, simultaneously. Very wide angle projection optics are used to project images onto multiple walls. Projection distortion is corrected digitally.
Prior xe2x80x9ckeystonexe2x80x9d digital distortion correcting techniques were only applied to vertically compress one side of an image projected onto a surface from a projector that was not perpendicular to the surface, in order that the final image looked square. The present invention distorts the middle of a projected image to correct projection into corners between walls so that a viewer perceives the image without distortion. An undistorted continuous image projected simultaneously onto two or more walls, with or without projecting onto the ceiling, will give an appealing cornerless, immersive, ambient sensation surrounding a viewer.
The system of the present invention includes 360 degree, hemispherical image capture.
Applications include live theater sets, restaurant and night club background, educational viewing, business presentations, interior decorating, gaming and home entertainment. The present invention can project displays onto any surface.
The present invention may be powered by either AC or DC sources. The present invention projects with any video standard, including but not limited to VGA, SVGA, XGA or UXGA. The present invention can display bit maps either from conventional analog to digital conversion, digital video or recently developing Digital Video Interfaces.
Further features and advantages of the present invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.